TWO Queenstown attorneys, Zuko Nonxuba and Milile Mpambaniso, appeared in the Zwelitsha magistrate’s court yesterday charged with defrauding the Eastern Cape social development department of R2,5-million.

More charges against the pair were expected in the near future in connection with the disappearance of R22-million of the department’s funds during the 2003/04 financial year, said the department’s chief director, Bandile Maqetuka.

“We arrested them about 7.30am today. We will leave no stone unturned,” he said.

Each was granted R50 000 bail and they will appear in court again on November, 8.

Departmental spokesman Gcobani Maswana described what is claimed to be the way the men operated: “They would go from house to house and ask people if they had applied for social grants and how the department had responded.

“If the person had been waiting for more than 90 days, they would get their particulars,” he said.

After sourcing the particulars, they would then institute a case against the department for failing to respond on time.

The law allows individuals to sue the department, should it fail to respond within 90 days. However, Gcobani claimed, this was done without the knowledge of the beneficiaries.

“For each citizen they were paid between R10 000 and R15 000. We appealed to the Scorpions to look into the matter, hence their arrest,” Maqetuka said.

It is believed that a syndicate is behind this operation. “We are looking for four more attorneys. We will make further arrests soon,” Maqetuka said.

The arrests were carried out by the Scorpions and the department’s inspectorate unit.

This joint operational team is still investigating more government employees, including doctors, home affairs, education and health officials, as well as other professionals across the province.

In total 2 000 government officials are being investigated.

“They owe us R25-million. We know who they are, where they work and how much they have benefited,” Maqetuka said.

“More than anything else,” he said, “we want to recover the money.”

For this reason, he said, the department had notified them, in writing, that they would have to pay back the money.

“Others have acknowledged that they owe us, but we will still pursue criminal charges,” he said.

The lack of co-ordination between the government’s Persal system and the social pension database had made it possible for the swindlers to fleece government for the past four years.

“Now there is an interface between Persal and the pension system,” Maqetuka said.

Yesterday the national department of social development reported that 41 000 government officials were being investigated for social grant fraud-related cases.

During August some of these officials will be arrested and appear in court.

The department has estimated that it loses almost R1,5- billion each year because of fraud and corruption.

On December 12, Social Development Minister Zola Skweyiya offered immunity against arrest to all those who were receiving social grants unworthily.

But it was on condition that they came forward no later than March 31. After that the immunity fell away.

Pretoria – The social development department’s anti-corruption campaign prevented R400-million from being stolen this year, Minister Zola Skweyiya said yesterday.

Speaking in Pretoria, Skweyiya said his department was annually defrauded of R1,5-billion.

“The efforts of the government as a whole, and law enforcement agencies, resulted in R400-million being saved.

“We salute the role played by law enforcement. That is the SA Police Service, the special investigation unit and the Scorpions,” Skweyiya said. He said he appreciated the work the agencies were doing in co-operation with his department and realised it was putting stress and additional demands on their capacity.

Skweyiya said to date the department and law enforcement had taken legal action against 109 officials, with more expected to face the same.

“Thus far we have had 86 000 people come forward and volunteer to get indemnity for their fraudulent use of the department’s funds. Of that number, 21 045 applications have been processed.”

He said out of the 21 045 processed applications, 4 500 were found to have come from public servants.

“Public servants do not qualify for indemnity for the abuse of public funds and their cases are to be referred for legal action,” the minister said.

Skweyiya said earlier in the day two lawyers in the Eastern Cape had been arrested for defrauding the government of R2,5-million. “The public must come forward and identify these people . . .”

The South African Council of Churches yesterday expressed concern that the government’s social grants may be open to abuse.

The general secretary of the SACC, Molefe Tsele, warned that the SACC would not hesitate to expose “one of our own if they should be found involved in such activities”.

At the briefing Skweyiya also discussed outcomes of a workshop on gender equality. He said progress had been made but much still had to filter down to women in the communities.

WHILE a crackdown on illegal drivers licences continues in the Eastern Cape, officials say it is unlikely that licences will be cancelled all at once, as in Limpopo Province last month.

Spokesman for the Special Investigations Unit, Gerhard Visagie said the unit would only report on successes once its investigation had been completed, and thus could not yet discuss its effectiveness in cracking down on fraudulent licences.

He said that the unit was currently investigating a number of cases, and that it would make recommendations to the department of transport to cancel licences.

Spokesman for the Joint Anti-Corruption Task Team (Jact) Mzukisi Fatyela said that the team was “happy with its progress”.

He said the team was checking the authenticity of licences and focusing on confiscation of the licences and the vehicles of people found to have fraudulent licences.

Fatyela said that, while there had not been a system of sending out letters en masse threatening the cancellation of licences, they were investigating individuals and officials.

Limpopo province sent out 21 000 letters to licence holders, declaring their licences invalid. In some cases eye tests had not been completed, and in other instances drivers’ test results were irregular or not completed.

So far, Jact has confiscated 17 licences in the Eastern Cape, and is investigating hundreds more cases, Fatyela said. Jact would start making arrests from next week, he said.

Visagie said that those who were found to be driving with fraudulent licences faced criminal charges.

Officials involved in corruption also faced disciplinary action, he said.

THE Western Cape has the highest number of prisoners who were re-arrested after being released as part of the government’s special remission process for qualifying offenders initiated in June.

Correctional services national spokesman Graham Abrahams said of the 156 prisoners who were re-arrested nationally, 61 were from the Western Cape, followed by 34 – the second highest provincial figure – from the Eastern Cape.

He said a total of 65 837 prisoners nationally were released on different conditions during the special remission programme.

Abrahams said the total number of those re-arrested constituted 0,23 per cent of those released but said that percentage was still too high.

“It depends on how one looks at the situation because in terms of the number of people, 156 might not be much but we still feel that they should not have gone back (to being re-arrested),” he said.

The offenders were arrested and charged with various crimes but most of their cases were still in court.

“We are working with the police and court prosecutors to make sure it is understood that these are offenders who were given a second chance and wasted it.”

Abrahams said the national department would prioritise working with correctional services in both the Eastern Cape and Western Cape to establish the patterns of some offenders.

“We are going into these correctional services centres to interview the prisoners and to try and solve the problems. We have psychologists and social workers who are helping us identify what the underlying problems are in these cases and we feel that this approach should work,” he said.

Abrahams said the last batch of offenders was released last week. The remission programme “went well” at all the correctional services centres nationwide.

“We still believe the remission programme was a success because even though we are not happy with some going back, the number was small when compared to the overall total,” he said. Prisoners with conditional releases were still being monitored.

London - The Zimbabwean government cleared out camps for those it made homeless in a so-called urban cleanup campaign after a UN investigator condemned conditions there, secretly dumping their inhabitants on the outskirts of the capital in even worse conditions, an international human rights group said Saturday.

Amnesty International released footage it said had been smuggled out of Zimbabwe. The footage showed people sheltering in an area known as Hopley Farm under little more than blankets and sheets of plastic and lining up with buckets at a mobile water tank.

Amnesty said it feared the problem was widespread, calling on the Zimbabwean government to say whether other areas like Hopley Farm existed and ensure aid agencies had access to them.

"Once you scatter throughout the country victims of this operation, it becomes much harder to find them and give them assistance," Audrey Gaughran, a London-based Amnesty researcher who was in Zimbabwe in late July and early August, said Saturday.

Gaughran added that the campaign the government has dubbed Operation Murambatsvina, or Drive Out Trash, should be seen in the context of wide-ranging human rights abuses under Zimbabwe's increasingly autocratic President Robert Mugabe. Security laws have outlawed basic freedoms of association and speech. Independent journalists have been jailed and their publications shut down.

Operation Murambatsvina "is the latest manifestation of a massive human rights problem in Zimbabwe that's been going on for years," Gaughran said.

She said Amnesty obtained the Hopley Farm video shot earlier this month from a source it would not name for fear of repercussions in Zimbabwe. A week ago, Zimbabwe's security forces prevented Tony Hall, a Rome-based US ambassador to the UN food agencies, from making a scheduled visit to Hopley Farm.

Hall said he was quietly told the government did not want him to see conditions there, but that the official reason given was that the military ran the site and his delegation needed a special visitors permit from the information ministry.

Gaughran said a group of the homeless had been dumped at Hopley Farm July 22, the day the UN released a report by housing expert Anna Tibaijuka calling the clean-up campaign a "disastrous venture" that left 700 000 people without homes or jobs and violated international law.

The Zimbabwean government has accused Tibaijuka of bias and said the clean-up campaign was meant to stem "chaotic urbanization" and improve the lives of city dwellers. Opposition leaders claim the campaign is aimed at driving their supporters among the urban poor to rural areas where they can be more easily controlled.

The UN report described dire conditions at what the Zimbabwean government had called "transit camps" for those affected by the campaign. Clearing the transit camps appeared aimed at removing "this visible evidence of what had happened," Amnesty's Gaughran told The Associated Press. "This may be an attempt to hide people away."

Johannesburg - It was no secret that the real reason the Congress of South African Trade Unions was backing former deputy president Jacob Zuma was because of its dislike of President Thabo Mbeki, Democratic Alliance leader Tony Leon said on Saturday.

"But you don't need to be an 'Mbeki fan' to know that the president is right in this case, and Cosatu is wrong," Leon told the party's North West provincial congress in Rustenburg.

However, the President and ANC were afraid to respond to Cosatu's provocations too harshly, because they depended on union members to get the vote in elections, he said.

Cosatu's call for Zuma to be reinstated and for his corruption trial to be stopped amounted to an assault on the very constitution that established workers' rights in the new South Africa, Leon said.

No ordinary person would enjoy the immunity that Cosatu sought for Zuma, he said.

Accusing Cosatu of believing in one law for the rich and powerful, and another law for the poor, he charged that the congress was behaving as a political party, not an organisation fighting for workers' interests.

Police will commence with an investigation into allegations of irregularities against senior council officials once a formal complaint has been lodged. This is according to Supt. Louis Jacobs, spokesperson of the police, following an internal audit report into the payment of R125 000 to a certain business solutions company in April for a feasability study. Jacobs confirmed that the matter had been brought to the attention of the police. According to information received by the Herald, a subsequent inquiry made at the Registrar of Companies revealed that the three directors of the company that was awarded the contract are all employed by Potchefstroom City Council. One official has status equivalent to that of a director, another a deputy head of department and the third a senior administrative official. Whether or not the services were in fact rendered is not clear, but it has emerged that no report was made available for audit purposes by the relevant department. It is also unclear as to whether or not the director was aware of the names of the members before compiling the report. The internal audit indicated that the officials were acting in contravention of the code of conduct for municipal staff for personal gain. In terms of section 4 (2) (a-c) of the Municipal Systems Act No 32 of 2000, a staff member of the municipality may not, except with the prior consent of council, be party to a contract for the provision of goods or services to the municipality, or the performance of any work for the municipality other than as a staff member. Neither may he obtain a financial interest in any business of the municipality or be engaged in any business, trade or profession other than the work of the municipality. A staff member who has acquired or stands to acquire any direct benefit from a contract concluded with the municipality, must disclose in writing full particulars of the benefit. The acting municipal manager was attending a conference in Cape Town and was not available for comment. No one was authorised to speak on his behalf in his absence.

WHILE drug usage continues to be a growing problem locally, police say they are at least managing to keep the doors shut against big drug dealers who want to move into the local market. The abuse of tik continues to mount and is being paired with the sedative heroin by users who want to temper their soaring highs. Inspector Hein Smith of the Fish Hoek Police Station says that information from his informers indicates that heroin abuse is increasing. Drug users are taking tik to get high and then use heroin to "come down", he said at a joint security forces meeting last week. However, with continued anti-drug operations, the police are at least managing to prevent new dealers from setting up shop in the area. Insp Smith says that local drug users still need to go out of the area to make a purchase. "Most users go to outside dealers because they know local places are being watched." Inspector Clifford Wyeth of the Muizenberg Police Station says that members of the public have an important role to play in combating the drug problem. "If you see that your neighbour is dealing in drugs, come into our police station and make a statement with Captain Leon Grundling. We work very closely with the Chief Magistrate of the Simon's Town court, who can then issue a search warrant on the basis of the statement. It's no use telling us verbally that so-and-so is selling dagga - we need a statement." Insp Wyeth says that while the police are notching up quite a few successes against the sale of drugs, "dealers' greed makes it very difficult to kill it out completely". "The only solution is harsh punishment by the judicial system," he says. A huge haul of dagga was seized in Masiphumelele earlier this year and tik and Mandrax dealing is known to be happening in Ocean View. But Inspector Peter Magman of the Ocean View Police Station, which serves these two areas, says that "the door is closed against new dealers". "We know who the existing dealers are and we are working according to the law. For quite a while now the door has been closed against new dealers." The Fish Hoek Drug Crisis and Information Centre is in the process of setting up a satellite office in Ocean View. The centre?s John Stewart says that Ocean View residents must take responsibility for this centre by aiding in its establishment. The satellite office will initially provide a referral service, with a counselling service to follow later. Phone John Stewart on 785-5205 if you want to get involved.

A CITY traffic officer was arrested by members of the City Police and charged following a robbery in a Delft convenience store last weekend.
A city spokesperson said the alleged robbery took place at the Friendly 7/11 store in Delft's Main Road on 30 July.

City Police and the police were alerted to be on the look-out for a vehicle allegedly involved in the robbery.

City Police members based in Khayelitsha traced the vehicle to a traffic officer's home and an arrest was made.

Internal disciplinary steps have been instituted.

Mr Batandwa Same (34) from Khayelitsha appeared in the Bellville Magistrate Court on Monday in connection with alleged robbery. The case has been postponed for a bail application to 16 August.

Zuma faces new charges
Scorpions will try to prove axed deputy president lied to Parliament and fiddled his tax returns
21 August 2005

An affidavit submitted to the Pretoria High Court by Scorpions investigator Johan du Plooy said the Scorpions’ investigation of Zuma had never stopped. It had continued even during Shaik’s trial

THE Scorpions are investigating new charges of fraud and tax evasion against former Deputy President Jacob Zuma, who already faces two counts of corruption.

Details of the web of financial transactions under scrutiny are contained in a 180-page submission made by the Scorpions to Judge Bernard Ngoepe on Friday last week.

The documents argued for a massive, nationwide raid on people and premises linked to Zuma. The Sunday Times has established that a total of 21 residences, offices and other premises — in Gauteng, the Western Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and Mpumalanga — were raided by dozens of Scorpions investigators this Thursday.

In dramatic early-morning raids, the Scorpions swooped on Zuma’s new home in Forest Town, Johannesburg, and his traditional homestead in Nkandla, KwaZulu-Natal. In an unprecedented move the Scorpions also searched the presidency and executive residence at the Union Buildings in Pretoria and Tuynhuys in Cape Town.

The Scorpions undertook the raids after top investigators persuaded Scorpions boss Vusi Pikoli to ratchet up the Zuma investigation to include sweeping new fraud and tax charges.

Among the allegations the Scorpions are seeking to prove are that Zuma:

•Made fraudulent declarations to Parliament and the Cabinet about payments and benefits he received from Durban businessman Schabir Shaik; and

•Contravened the Income Tax Act when he submitted tax returns to the South African Revenue Service (SARS).

The Scorpions decided to expand their investigation of Zuma 13 days ago to include “all sources of Zuma’s funding”.

When the Scorpions swooped on the 21 premises — all linked to Zuma and his associates — on Thursday they were looking for:

•Diaries of Zuma and his associates going back to 1995;

•Faxes, e-mails and other documents related to Zuma’s visits to Malaysia, including any business generated in favour of Shaik and the Nkobi group of companies as a result of such visits;

Reddy and Fakude-Nkuna made a number of payments — amounting to more than R300000 — to the builder of Zuma’s Nkandla home. Kögl’s company, Cay Nominees, paid R600000 for partial settlement of a bond over Zuma’s property in Killarney, Johannesburg.

Scorpions investigators believe that payments made by Reddy and Kögl on behalf of Zuma were linked to Thomson/Thales.

Thales — which won the bid for a R6-billion contract to supply the South African Navy with four new corvette warships — is at the centre of the bribe solicited for Zuma by Durban businessman Schabir Shaik.

Thales’s local arm, Thint, was initially charged with Shaik, but the charge against it was withdrawn. The Scorpions, however, have reopened an investigation against Thint.

The two corruption charges now being faced by Zuma relate to the same facts on which the conviction of Shaik and his Nkobi companies was based.

Shaik was found guilty of two counts of corruption and one of fraud. Judge Hilary Squires found that Shaik and Zuma had a “generally corrupt relationship”.

An affidavit submitted to the Pretoria High Court by Scorpions investigator Johan du Plooy said the Scorpions’ investigation of Zuma had never stopped. It had continued even during Shaik’s trial.

Du Plooy said the court’s finding on the Shaik matter “strongly support the conclusion that there are reasonable grounds to believe that Zuma and Thales were complicit in the commission of the offences in respect of which Shaik and other accused were convicted ... the corruption charges and alternative money-laundering charge”.

Zuma has denied any wrongdoing. He contends that payments made by Shaik on his behalf were part of a loan agreement between him and Shaik.

Zuma also denies that he met the former head of Thales in South Africa, Alain Thetard, on March 11 2000 as alleged in the famous encrypted fax, a key exhibit at Shaik’s trial.

Although Zuma admitted that he might have met representatives of Thales in Paris and South Africa, he contends that only general matters related to his official portfolios would have been discussed.

But Du Plooy insists that “the unambiguous evidence in respect of Count 3 [in the Shaik trial] suggests that Zuma agreed to provide protection to Thomson concerning the impending official investigations concerning the arms deal.

“This presupposes that there was some preceding irregularity in respect of which Thales/Thomson considered that it needed protection.”

In his defence, Shaik insisted that the series of payments he made to and on behalf of Zuma between 1995 and 2000 “constituted either loans to Zuma or donations to the ANC”. He said that the payments were not given corruptly.

Du Plooy said Judge Squires’s judgment in the Shaik case “made it obvious that an agreement concerning the request for a bribe and its payments in accordance with the false service-provider agreement included the complicity of at least Thetard and his superiors in France and Mauritius”.